Reversible feeding guide for a hammermill

ABSTRACT

A reversible guide member changing the direction of the inlet chute of the grinding chamber of a hammermill consisting of an inverted V-shaped member removably secured to one wall of said inlet chute and having its outer side form the bottom deflection wall of said inlet chute, said outer side being angled in the direction of rotation of the grinding member of said hammermill, said guide member in the alternative being removably secured to the opposite wall of said inlet chute to form a reversely angled bottom deflection wall thereof angled in the direction of a reverse rotation of said grinding member.

United States Patent 11 1 Olson Oct. 28, 1975 REVERSIBLE FEEDING GUIDE FOR A HAMMERMILL Primary Examiner-Granville Y. Custer, Jr. [76] Inventor: Robert P. Olson, Rte. 2, Box 657, Attorney Agent or Flrm Le0 Gregory Mound, Minn. 55364 [57] ABS CT 22 F'] d: M 1 ay 1974 A reversible guide member changing the direction of PP- 467,996 the inlet chute of the grinding chamber of a hammermill consisting of an inverted V-shaped member re- [52] CL. 241/189 241/189 R movably secured to one wall of said inlet chute and [51] Int. 2 B02C 13/286 having its outer side form the bottom deflection wall [58] Field of l 88 3 88 4 of said inlet chute, said outer side being angled in the 241/89 1 R 1 1 6 direction of rotation of the grinding member of said i hammermill, said guide member in the alternative being removably secured to the opposite wall of said [56] References Cited inlet chute to form a reversely angled bottom deflec NI E tion wall thereof angled in the direction of a reverse U T D STATES PATENTS rotation of said grinding member. 2,491,661 12/1949 Gruendler 241/189 A X 2,514,111 7/1950 Wilson 241/189 AX 1 Clam, 5 Drawmg Flgures m 111111111. 1rm1mn *1 25' Q5 I as I 50 A1111 J ,7 m '1 26 5'; 2 a, 5 i 36' I '2 1 3 3/ v 1 1 I g 1 42 E l I "k /9 I e A w U.S. Patent Oct. 28, 1975 Sheet 2 of2 3,915,397

REVERSIBLE FEEDING GUIDE FOR A HAMMERMILL BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention herein relates to a guide member for reversing the direction of flow of material through an inlet chute feeding into the grinding chamber of a hammermill to have the material fed through said chute in the direction of rotation of a reversely rotatable grinding member.

It is not uncommon for material to be fed centrally vertically into the grinding chamber of a hammermill. It is preferable to feed material into such a grinding chamber in the direction of the rotation of the grinding member to be caught into the direct flow of the material being ground therein. It is even more desirable to provide apparatus to permit a directional reversal of the flow of material into such a grinding chamber with a reversal of direction of the rotation of the grinding member as will be further described.

The hammers or blades of a hammermill are generally parallelepiped in form and each corner thereof is a cutting edge with only one of said edges of each blade being used in grinding with movement in one direction. There are four cutting edges to a blade. The blade is pivoted at one end thereof. Hence, to utilize all four cutting edges it .would be necessary to reverse each blade sideways as well as endwise to put all four cutting edges to use in a given direction. This is a laborious operation as there may be from 24 to upwardly of 72 blades mounted upon the rotor of a grinding member. The purpose of the invention herein is to provide for only one endwise change of the blades to utilize all four cutting edges thereof by embodying with the change of the blade a reversal of direction of the rotation of the grinding members and a corresponding reversal of the direction of flow of material fed into the grinding chamber.

Hence, it is an object of this invention to provide means for a directional change in the flow of material fed into a hammermill grinding chamber in connection with utilizing four of the cutting edges of a hammermill blade with only one change of blade position.

It is another object of this invention to provide means for changing the direction of flow of material into the grinding chamber of a hammermill by reversing the position of a guide member from one wall of the inlet chute of the grinding chamber to the opposite wall thereof with said member forming the bottom deflection wall of said inlet chute.

More generally stated, it is an object of the invention herein to provide a directional guide member for an inlet chute feeding into the grinding chamber of a hammermill, said member being removably secured to one wall of said inlet chute to form the bottom deflection wall thereof, said bottom deflection wall being angled in the direction of rotation of the grinding member, said guide member being reversely secured to the opposite wall of said inlet chute to form the bottom deflection wall of said chute in a reverse direction angled in the direction of a reverse rotation of said grinding members.

Thus it is an object of this invention to provide for the use of all four cutting edges of a hammermill blade with but a single endwise change of blade position.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the following description made in connection with the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views and in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in side elevation of a hammermill;

FIG. 2 is a view on an enlarged scale in vertical cross section taken on line 22 of FIG. 1 as indicated;

FIG. 3 is a broken view on an enlarged scale in section taken on line 33 of FIG. 1 as indicated; and

FIGS. 4 and 5 are front and rear views in perspective of a detail of structure on an enlarged scale.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The invention herein relates to structure providing for a change in the direction of flow of material through the inlet chute of a hammermill into its grinding chamber.

A hammermill generally is indicated by the reference numeral in FIG. 1 and only as much of the structure thereof will be shown in detail as is believed necessary to support a description of the structure comprising the invention herein.

Said hammermill 10 comprises a housing 12 having a chamber 15 therein. Disposed within said chamber and supported against the back wall 17 thereof in a conventional manner is a screen member 19 which forms the side wall of the grinding chamber 20 therein.

Communicating with said grinding chamber is an inlet chute 22 which is disposed centrally of the top wall 23 of said housing and feeds directly downwardly into said chamber 20. Depending from said inlet chute integral therewith in diverging relationship are side wall members 25 and 27 forming the upper side wall portions of the grinding chamber. Said screen member shown here to be tear drop in form has its upper free end portions 19a and 19b respectively secured to the lower end portions of said wall members 25 and 27 by clamp members 26 and 28 carried at the ends of tubular rods 29 and 30 being movable axially by screw rods 31 and 32 in a conventional manner, said rods respectively have threaded engagement for axial movement with housing portions 35 and 36 formed as bosses projecting from the side walls 39 and 40 of said housing 12. Said screw rods are operated by handles 42 and 43 carried at their outer end portions.

Mounted within said grinding chamber 20 carried by driving shaft 45 is a rotor 47 having mounted thereon hammer or cutting blades 49.

The structure comprising the subject matter of the invention herein is the reversible directional guide member 50 which determines the direction of flow of the material entering said grinding chamber through said inlet chute 22 by forming a bottom deflection wall for said chute.

In the embodiment of the invention as here presented, said guide member 50 is shown as being substantially of inverted V-shape in form having downwardly diverging side walls 52 and 53 with said side wall 52 forming the outer side wall thereof and forming the bottom deflection wall of said inlet chute 22. Said wall determines the direction and angle of flow of material into said grinding chamber 20. Said wall 52 is here shown having a small inwardly angled flange 54 at the bottom end thereof. Said side wall 53 is here shown to be somewhat longer than said wall 52 and forms a bracket or holding arm. Disposed within said member 50 for bracing purposes are a pair of transversely spaced triangular plate members 57 and 58 secured as by welding.

Said side wall 53 has a pair of spaced apertures 59 to receive a pair of nutted bolts 62 carried by said wall 27 to removably secure said member 50 to said side wall 27.

Said side wall 25 has a pair of nutted bolts 63 corresponding to the bolts 62 of wall 27. Said guide member 50 is readily detached from said wall 27 by removal of the bolts 62 and by reversing said guide member 50 by merely turning it around the same is readily secured to said side wall 25 by having the bolts 63 disposed through said apertures 59 of said wall 53.

Although not here shown, it will be understood that the motor 65 driving the shaft 45 will be a reversible type of motor which can be driven to rotate the rotor 47 in either a clockwise or counter clockwise direction as may be desired.

OPERATION With reference to FIG. 3, the guide member 50 by means of its outer wall 52 forming the bottom deflection wall of the chute 22 directs the flow of incoming material at an angle in the direction as indicated of rotation of the rotor or grinding member 47. In operation, in the direction indicated, the comers 49a of the hammer blades serve as the cutting members.

By the removal of the two bolts 62, said guide member 50 is removed and is readily reversed by being turned around and attached to the chute wall 25 by bolts 63 as indicated in dotted line in FIG. 3. Here the outer wall 52 is in a reversely angled position with relation to its first described position and in this second position it directs the incoming material in a direction reverse of that first above indicated and here the direction of the rotor will be reversed. With the direction of the rotor being reversed, the opposite comers 49b of said hammer blades serve as the cutting members.

By changing each of the hammer blades 49 end for end, the remaining two edges thereof are utilized as cutting edges in the same manner as above described.

The reversal or turning about of the guide member 50 is very readily accomplished requiring only the loosening and tightening of bolts 62 and 63. The changing around of the hammer blades is a time-consuming effort. In the absence of reversing the direction of flow of the incoming material into the grinding chamber, in order to utilize all four cutting edges, each hammer blade must be changed by being reversed; first, by being turned around, then changed end for end and again turned around; all of which requires three changes for each hammer blade to use the four cutting edges. With the reversal of the portion of said guide member 50 and by reversing the direction of rotation of the grinding member, only one change of the hammer blades is required, which is an end for end change, in order to utilize all four cutting edges.

Directional feeding into a grinding chamber results in a superior and more efficient grinding operation than would result from a central vertical inlet chute feeding directly into the top of the grinding member.

The invention herein in comprising a relatively simple structure forming a reversible deflection wall for an inlet chute has significant importance on the operation of a hammermill by making possible with substantial time saving, the use of all four cutting edges of hammer blades with only one change in the position of the blades. This invention has proved very successful in use.

It will of course be understood that various changes may be made in form, details, arrangement and proportions of the parts without departing from the scope of the invention herein which, generally stated, consists in an apparatus capable of carrying out the objects above set forth, in the parts and combinations of parts disclosed and defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A reversible feeding guide for a reversible hammermill, having in combination an inlet chute into the grinding chamber of said hammermill, said chute having symetrical diverging opposed side walls,

a bracket removably secured to one of said side walls,

a plate member carried by said bracket being disposed in spaced parallel relation to the opposite side wall,

said bracket in an alternate position being removably secured to said opposite side wall, and

said plate member in said alternate position being disposed in spaced parallel relation to said one of said side walls. 

1. A reversible feeding guide for a reversible hammermill, having in combination an inlet chute into the grinding chamber of said hammermill, said chute having symetrical diverging opposed side walls, a bracket removably secured to one of said side walls, a plate member carried by said bracket being disposed in spaced parallel relation to the opposite side wall, said bracket in an alternate position being removably secured to said opposite side wall, and said plate member in Said alternate position being disposed in spaced parallel relation to said one of said side walls. 